Learn how you can improve workplace communication through training to enhance teamwork, productivity, and create a thriving organizational culture.
No matter where you work, you’ve probably dealt with some kind of miscommunication. Maybe you’ve shared information you thought was clear, but it was completely misunderstood. Or someone asks you to do something, and you’re not sure what they want. Or maybe you’re in charge of conflict resolution—helping others fix their miscommunications!
Good communication is key to helping teams function better, clear messaging, and building trust. It’s also a fundamental feature—and a direct result—of a healthy workplace culture.
While it may seem like some people are natural communicators, anyone can learn to communicate well. All you need is consistent training, time to practice, and an environment where people feel safe learning.
What is Effective Communication?
Christiana Jolaoso sums up effective communication as “not just relaying information to a team member, but explaining it in a way they understand.” With effective communication, you’re not just delivering the message—you want people to hear, comprehend, and act on it.
Julia Martins notes that effective communication is “about more than just talking; [it] involves listening skills and a deep understanding.” The message must be clear, concise, consistent, and delivered using the right tools to the right audience. It includes giving and receiving feedback, sharing good and bad news, and communicating strategic vision. Nonverbal cues, active listening, cultural competence, self-reflection, and emotional intelligence also play an important role.
But effective communication isn’t just about how individuals interact with each other. Dennis Holland writes that “workplace communication is more than meetings, emails and Slack channels. It’s the exchange of ideas, goals, strategies and information that drives an organization.” It’s how the organization as a whole communicates, internally and externally. The way managers, teams, leaders, and customers interact is a key indicator of organizational culture. Indeed notes that “good workplace communication contributes to a positive company culture and an ability to meet company goals.”
Benefits of Effective Communication
Indeed’s Editorial Team notes that “open workplace communication improves productivity, increases the speed and likelihood of goals being achieved and typically ensures a great company culture.” Teams work better together, and collaboration and innovation can flourish. Employees know they’re getting the information they need, feel like they’re being listened to, and are more likely to share ideas.
Effective communication also tends to reduce conflict. And when conflict does arise, it’s easier to deal with. In times of rapid change and uncertainty, when employees need to focus on resilience and adaptability, effective communication can bring much-needed clarity to organizations. And, even when things are uncertain, Mendy, Steward, and Van Akin say that leaders who communicate effectively can cultivate purpose and trust.
The benefits extend beyond internal operations. Another piece from Indeed argues that “organizations that communicate well with their customers or clients are more likely to build solid relationships and retain clients versus companies that don't prioritize client communication.” Trust and transparency burnish your organization’s image and build strong customer relationships. Just think of the best customer service you’ve ever had—it probably came down to communication.
Finally, effective communication impacts workplace culture. The Society for Human Resource Management’s toolkit on managing organizational communication states that when effective communication is part of business strategy, the organization can deliver messages that match the mission, vision, and culture.
Barriers to Effective Communication
If effective communication is so beneficial, why isn’t everyone doing it? The principles are simple: communicate for understanding, listen, and be clear and consistent. But in practice, communicating effectively isn’t always easy.
Common barriers won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has worked in an organization. Messages can lack clarity and substance or be full of jargon. Sometimes, the message is delivered through the wrong format—which anyone who has sat through a “this-could-have-been-an-email” meeting knows. Fixing ineffective communication channels is fairly straightforward, though.
Much tougher to manage are employee feelings of disconnection and disengagement. In these cases, it’s not just that the message may be garbled; it’s that no one cares. Holland points to data that connects “disengaged work settings, lack of connection with leaders, and lack of emotional safety” with workplace relationship problems and poor communication. And Mary Sharp Emerson notes that “communication, in both directions, can only be effective in a culture that is built on trust and a foundation of psychological safety”—which we’ve written about as a key part of workplace wellbeing, resilience, and teamwork.
Learning to Communicate Effectively
Emerson offers a silver lining, though: “Better communication skills can be learned and even mastered.” So, instead of hoping people improve their speaking and listening skills on their own, you can implement training that benefits all employees—and your organization as a whole.
Berkeley’s Executive Education Program encourages organizations to “establish a culture of continuous education on effective communication practices” and “emphasize the benefits of workshops, training sessions, and other learning opportunities to enhance communication skills across the organization.” Implementing training opportunities doesn’t just help employees, teams, and customer service—it begins to shape the organization as one that values a culture of learning.
And, implementing training doesn’t have to be difficult. By focusing on a few key topics and ensuring the right training is in place, you can meet employee needs, shape organizational culture, and communicate effectively internally and externally.
Training Topics for Effective Communication
Communication covers:
- Verbal and nonverbal expressions
- Active listening
- Speaking and writing
- Internal and external messaging, and more
So, where do you focus training efforts? The good news is that with the right platform, you can deliver or create training that applies to all aspects of communication. Here are a few suggestions.
Active Listening
Instead of listening to respond, active listening is listening to understand. And since understanding is at the heart of effective communication, training employees in active listening can immediately make a difference in your organization’s internal and external interactions.
Cultural Competence
As Holland notes, “Chances are your peers and teams come from diverse generations, backgrounds, cultures, education, and experiences, meaning everyone comes to work with a different perspective.” Learning to interact well with people who are different—and reflecting on your own culture’s impact on your communication style—builds trust and confidence.
Written Communication
Everyone knows how to draft an email or newsletter, right? Nope. The loss of tone and body language in writing can quickly create major misunderstandings. And sloppy written work can impact how clients or customers think about your organization. Training on communicating professionally in writing should be a core topic in your educational offerings.
Phone Skills
Even people who hate talking on the phone may have to at work. Answering and transferring calls clearly and professionally is an essential part of customer service, and a good conversation can make people more likely to do business with your organization. Adding phone skills to your training helps employees feel—and sound—more comfortable and confident.
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Continuous feedback helps organizations thrive. You’ll learn what’s working and be able to fix what isn’t. Training staff and managers how to give and receive feedback is a fundamental part of building a resilient, innovative, and safe culture.
Public Presentations
Engaging presentations keep people informed internally and share your organization’s ideas, products, or services with the world. But if you’ve ever sat through a boring presentation, you know why good communication is important. Training staff how to plan, structure, and deliver a presentation puts the organization’s best foot forward.
These are just a few of the many training topics that can transform workplace communication.
Training Tips for Effective Communication
Not all training is created equal, and the last thing you want is ineffective content or delivery. So here are a few things to keep in mind to help training stick.
Make it consistent
Have you ever felt like training only happens when something is wrong, or someone makes a mistake? Jalaoso recommends “holding regular communication training sessions so that both team leaders and employees can grasp basic communication skills that improve workplace communication.” Consistent, continual training shows employees that the organization values a culture of learning. And training sessions don’t have to happen in one big, on-site meeting. Asynchronous training that lets employees work at their own pace is one way to embed a culture of learning throughout the organization.
Focus on behavior
It’s great to help people understand why effective communication matters. It’s even better to help them actually communicate effectively. Communication is behavior, so look for training that focuses on changing or improving behavior. What does active listening look like? How can you tell if someone is changing the way they give feedback? Training should emphasize implementation, so look for content that uses active objectives that spell out exactly what a learner will be able to do when they finish the training.
Let people practice
Have you ever been in a training session where people get lots of information about a topic but don’t actually practice using the information? Or where the practice is so far from real-world situations that you wonder why you’re learning it at all? Good training includes chances to practice practical skills—and it should incorporate feedback so learners know what they’re doing well and where they can improve. This is another place where asynchronous online training really shines—because it provides a low-stakes environment in which learners can learn new things without feeling embarrassed or competitive.
Track learning
This may be the single most important aspect of any training. Otherwise, it’s difficult to see progress and return on investment. Many platforms track engagement and completion (and we think those things are important), but we also believe in measuring actual learning through knowledge checks and activities that clearly show where people are on their learning journey. Tracking learning helps you know where people are excelling and where they need extra support. This information helps you avoid wasting time, misallocating resources, or increasing frustration!
Include policies and handbooks
Fully integrating training into your organizational culture means taking steps to connect training to operations. If training doesn’t seem to apply to employee’s work lives, learning and behavior change become more difficult. Make sure training aligns with policies and procedures and vice versa. At Niche Academy, we make it easy to upload policies and procedures directly into related tutorials—so training on sexual harassment can include links or downloads to your policy, for example. And don’t forget to provide training on the policies and procedures themselves, like your social media policy, public relations policy, and customer service procedures.
Get everyone involved
Just like training shouldn’t only be used when there’s a problem, it also shouldn’t be limited to junior staff. Managers and leaders play a key role in modeling effective communication and creating psychological safety so everyone can communicate with transparency. The Society for Human Resource Management’s toolkit notes that “a strong training component will not only equip leaders to communicate effectively with their teams and other organizational leaders, it will also help them understand the appropriate communication channels and protocols.” Carmine Gallo observes that “leaders who reach the top do not simply pay lip service to the importance of effective communication. Instead, they study the art in all its forms…and constantly strive to improve on those skills.”
Start Training Today
Effective communication can be learned. And it should be a priority for all organizations, whether they’re facing internal challenges, looking to better connect with customers, or simply navigating changes in the workforce or world.
If your workplace communication isn’t where you’d like it to be, Matthew Burr has some encouraging words: “communication issues are low-hanging fruit—easy to fix.” And while that might not always seem like the case, good training can help. Gallo quotes former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, who said “you cannot over-invest in communication skills.”
At Niche Academy, we know training doesn’t have to be expensive to have an impact. Our LMS comes with a marketplace of ready-made, customizable tutorials that you can implement immediately. Whether employees need help with active listening or phone etiquette, we’ve got you covered. And our content authoring tools mean you can quickly develop or adapt tutorials or learning pathways that meet your organization’s highly specific needs. Assign tutorials based on employee needs, track learning, and watch the culture of communication—and learning—change.
This post is the fifth in a series of articles we are publishing on topics related to building a better workplace culture. Subscribe to our blog using the form below to be notified when the next article is published.
References
Burr, M.W. (May 6, 2019). The Power of Proactive Communication. SHRM.
Effective Communication in the Workplace. Berkeley ExecEd.
Emerson, M.S. (February 6, 2023). 8 Tips for Better Communication Skills. Forbes.
Gallo, C. (November 23, 2022). How Great Leaders Communicate. Harvard Business Review.
Holland, D. (June 26, 2024). 4 Tactics for Better Workplace Communication. HR Morning.
The Components of Effective Workplace Communication. (September 7, 2022). Indeed.
10 Benefits of Effective Communication in the Workplace. (February 23, 2023). Indeed.
Jolaoso, C. (June 17, 2024). 10 Tips for Effective Communication in the Workplace. Forbes.
Mendy, A., Steward, M.L., Van Akin, K. (June 18, 2020). How to Communicate Effectively in Times of Uncertainty. McKinsey & Company.
Managing Organizational Communication. SHRM.
Martins, J. (March 27, 2024). 12 Tips for Effective Communication in the Workplace. Asana.
Workplace Communication: How to Communicate Better at Work. (February 3, 2023). Indeed.